Poetic
by TexasWatermelon
Summary: Amanda shows compassion in the Nerve Gas House.  Spoilers for Saw II.   AmandaxLaura   Rated for language and sex.


**This is my first Saw fic because I just watched the entire series tonight and I was obsessed with these two characters and so mad they both died. So you can see here that I have rectified that.**

**Spoilers for Saw II, but AU so that Laura is alive and Amanda is no longer a disciple of John's. Femslash, rated pretty near R for language throughout and something resembling sex at the end. You have been warned.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own saw, or Amanda, or Laura, but if I did they would be my sex slaves because their awesome.**

**Let me know what you think.**

This game was getting old. It was sick and twisted, and if it hadn't been for a lack of nothing else to keep her going, Amanda would have never signed up for it in the first place. John was insane. He fancied himself God, deciding who deserved to be put into these horrible life and death situations and watching, taking pleasure in their gruesome deaths. Amanda had to admit that most of them deserved it. Even she had, at one point, deserved to have a cold, hard slap of reality right across the face.

Lawrence had been a cold-hearted bastard, cheating on his wife and condemning people to death without so much as an "I'm terribly sorry." Adam was a fool who spent more time looking at other people's lives than his own. The cops, well they were idiots for even thinking that they could apprehend John and get away with it.

And the people in this house. The Nerve Gas House, John called it. As Amanda watched them all scramble around frantically, trying to find an antidote for the gas, she realized that most of them deserved it too. Xavier was a crazy fuck. He was willing to do anything, to kill anyone that got in his way. Hell, he'd thrown her in a pit of dirty needles to find the key. It was _his_ test, and he wasn't even man enough to do it himself. Jonas was an idiot, always doing one thing or another to get himself thrown in jail. Addison was a washed up whore. Gus… well, Gus was just dead, so it didn't really matter at this point. Obi was the stupid fucker that put them all in the house in the first place. And honestly, who would be dumb enough to crawl into an oven anyway?

But this girl, this girl hadn't really done much of anything. She was just an unfortunate person who happened to have been framed by the kid's dirty cop dad. As far as Amanda knew, she hadn't even stolen anything. Well, maybe there was one shoplifting incident, but in her book that didn't qualify her for this. And here she was, taking the hardest hit from the gas. It just didn't seem as poetic as it was supposed to be.

As they entered the corridor, Laura fell to the ground again. She couldn't stand up on her own, and Amanda suspected that she didn't really have the will to even if she could. Amanda fell to her knees, offering what little support she could give in this situation. Addison and Daniel were looking around for more clues. Fools, it was right in front of them.

"X marks the spot," came the weak voice. Amanda looked down at Laura, who was staring transfixed at the only clue in the entire hallway. Even on her deathbed, this girl was smarter than those two combined. It took Addison a minute, but she finally realized what Laura was talking about and found the picture. The secret was out. Addison was pissed, and Laura… was seizing. Shit!

The time for acting was over. Amanda grabbed the girl, holding her tightly. If she could just pull through… What was she thinking, she wouldn't pull through! This would be the final straw; the stress would kill her for sure. In a split second, Amanda made a quick decision, pulling a spare syringe out of her pocket. She jabbed it into the first surface of Laura's skin that she could find and injected the antidote into the girl's body. And just like that, the movement stopped. Laura lay still, but breathing weakly. Time to resume the role play.

Amanda pretended well enough that she was pissed about Daniel's dad, though at this point she really didn't give a shit. All of that was in the past. The only thing she had left to do was get this stupid ass kid out of here, and back to John. Enough people were dead now that she could make her move. She'd come back for Laura later. This girl would still have a chance to do all the things she wanted to do. And somehow Amanda felt like things were finally poetic. Whatever happened with the kid and the cop was up to John. Amanda had done her part, played her game, and Laura had come out the winner. Probably the only one, too. Lucky girl. Pretty, lucky girl.

xxxxx

It was months before Amanda ran into the girl she saved again. Almost a year, in fact. She'd finally, _finally_, made a move of her own. She'd taken her piece off of the board and put it away. She was no longer a player. John had found someone else to help him with his games anyway. That stupid, stupid kid. Someday he would regret it.

Sunday afternoon at the grocery store made for an oddly mundane meeting compared to the last time Amanda had seen Laura. She was looking much better. Healthy, happy, though there was an underlying exhaustion that only Amanda could catch as the two locked eyes across the checkout lines. Laura was finished first, and for a fleeting moment it looked as though she wanted to shrug it off and forget the fact that she'd ever even known who Amanda was. But she changed her mind.

"Why did you save me?" was the first thing out of Laura's mouth, and Amanda had to admit that she admired the bluntness.

"I'm a sucker for poetry." Laura looked at her like she was crazy. Hell, who was she kidding? She _was_ crazy. There were so many scars on her arms and legs that she didn't think there was any piece of her original skin left. The surface wounds helped to take away the pain on the inside.

"You were a part of it, weren't you? You were in on it the whole time. Was I just another piece to the puzzle? Is that why you did what you did?" Amanda shook her head. There were few things that she was sure of, but after the millions of times that she'd thought of this girl over the past year, she'd finally come up with an explanation that she was confident of.

"You were the one piece that didn't fit. And I just couldn't see taking a life that still had a chance to be lived. Those other people in that house, they were already dead. But you still had so much life in you," she explained. The girl stared her down, not with hatred, but with a sort of understanding. "You want to know why there were two syringes in the oven and not one?" Laura hesitated, as though thinking that maybe she really didn't want to know.

"Why?" she asked finally, looking slightly apprehensive at the answer. Amanda grinned grimly.

"Because you were the only one without a tape. Even John couldn't think of a reason to punish you. If Obi had gotten out of there alive, I would have made sure the syringe had gotten to you, because it was yours. You had no test. You were an extra player, and you didn't belong. You weren't supposed to die, but John was too concerned about playing his games with the cop and his kid to care if you did or not. While he was sitting back getting his ass kicked around the room, glorifying himself to those detectives and throwing himself a pity party, I was the one that had to sit around and watch everyone else suffer. You deserved a chance. That's why I saved you."

For a long time, Laura said nothing. She merely stood there with her bag of groceries, staring at Amanda with a new sense of comprehension. Amanda took the time to try to figure out what it was about the girl that made her want to drop everything, take her hand, and walk away from this place never to return. Maybe it was the fact that even though she seemed to be so much older than she was, she was still so beautiful. But Amanda suspected that she may have found a kindred spirit of sorts.

"I kind of like poetry. And I've always hated puzzles," Laura said suddenly. Amanda could only smile as she watched the girl walk away.

xxxxx

Some weeks later, Amanda found herself pressed hard against the wall of her apartment with Laura's lips gliding forcefully across her own. She groaned as the girl's tongue found its way into her mouth, as hands slid down her sides, across her quivering stomach, into her jeans. As Laura pulled away abruptly, lips swollen and bruised, Amanda could only wonder how she'd gotten lucky enough to end up in this situation.

"I never did thank you for saving my life, did I?" Laura asked, her voice low and rough. Amanda shook her head, even though the girl already knew the answer. As slim fingers found a slick opening, it didn't matter anyway. "Maybe I should start."

Amanda liked this game so much more.


End file.
